Benfica 3-Barcelona 0 | Darwin Núñez and the theory of Barça's involution

Koeman, and Barcelona incidentally, have gotten into a very, very serious mess. From the beginning in the Champions League, where after the defeat against Benfica 3-0, the option of going to the knockout stages of the Champions is very compromised. The Blaugrana team after two days is the bottom of their group, with two defeats in two games, 0 out of six possible points and six goals against for none in favor. but beyond the looming European disaster, the involution in the game was once again evident in a match that destroyed any glimmer of hope to recover. The look of this team is terrible.

The happiness does not last long in the poor man's house, because considering what is leaking from the club's economic situation from the board and the salary limit that LaLiga has imposed on the Blaugrana team, it is not possible to qualify Barça in any other way. The illusion that took hold of Barcelona after the victory against Levante fell like an envelope soufflé when they saw that from the beginning against Benfica Koeman returned to the system of three centrals repeating the alignment that he lost against Bayern with the only forced change of Dest by the injured Jordi Alba.

Gavi, Mingueza, Nico and Coutinho disappeared from the lineup last Sunday and in three minutes the bad omens were confirmed When Darwin Núñez took advantage of a loss of the ball by Pedri, he portrayed Eric – again more than soft – in his duel and slipped the ball through the short post before the umpteenth action of a Ter Stegen who returned to his old ways.

With the certainty of having to row against the current from the start, Barça tried to overcome the blow. Koeman's first action was to change Eric to the side so that Araújo would take care of Darwin, who in a play very similar to that of the goal minutes later clearly imposed himself on the striker simply with the intimidation of his body.

Barça had the equalizer in Luuk de Jong's boots, after an assist from Frenkie to his compatriot who, when he holed the ball on goal, found Otamendi's boot. The assistant canceled the action for offside, but if it were a goal, the VAR would have had the floor.

Benfica, by controlling the starts of Memphis had the game in their hand looking for the speed of their tips that were imposed on Eric and Piqué. The Catalan soon saw a yellow for being late to an anticipation on Rafa and minutes later they forgave him the second for a similar action.

At half an hour into the game, Koeman withdrew him from the field to admit Gavi. From the field it was not noticed that the central defender had any discomfort And neither did the coach change the game system, because De Jong went on to play as a center-back. In the absence of explanations, it seems that the fact of staying with ten weighed more.

Barcelona came out in the second half without showing any sign of reaction despite the fact that the defeat meant seriously compromising the pass to the second round. What's more, he was saved from 2-0 five minutes after the restart because Darwin, after beating Ter Stegen in a mad start 35 meters from his goal, fired with the empty frame at the post. Barça was in a catatonic state: without ideas in front and very fragile behind.

When the appeal of the balls arrived, the Catalan team did not give a better impression either. Leaving aside the plays in which they fell into offside, the succession of errors by the Blaugrana attackers, with special mention for Luuk de Jong, was almost ridiculous.

Given the situation, there was nothing left but to play the Ansu card, which went out to the field with Nico and Coutinho, but there was no time to see if the miracle would be repeated this time. As soon as he stepped on the pitch, Rafa scored the 2-0 prior to Dest's penalty that Darwin transformed and that certified the involution of Barcelona and that leaves the culé team hanging from the brush in Europe, Koeman on the way to dismissal and the Estadio da Luz as a nightmare scenario.

The final minutes, with Eric sent off for a double warning and the public chanting with olés the actions of his team against the impotence of the Blaugrana, was the climax of a torture, which does not seem to have a close end.